


Exit Running

by Shujinkakusama



Series: Bad End Running [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Pearlnet Bomb, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 19:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7477740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shujinkakusama/pseuds/Shujinkakusama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follows "Final Impact"; twelve years later, Pearl, Stevonnie and Garnet are reunited. // Pearlnetbomb day 3: Homeworld</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exit Running

**Author's Note:**

> This was not supposed to be a series, but here we are.

Twelve long years passed before they saw each other again.

 

It was a miracle in and of itself that Connie appeared moments after the warp, on Lion, who needed a full cycle to recover. There was little anyone could do; Steven and Connie spent much of their time fused, and Pearl trained the two of them—and Stevonnie—with the desperation that came from knowing that they would likely never survive if Homeworld found them. Food wasn’t plentiful, but Steven and Connie grew lean and tall on the planets they hid on. Lion was immeasurably helpful; he could bring food with them, enough to last weeks at a time, and some species took pity on the wayward group.

 

Pearl’s heart was hollow, but she tried to fill it with the presence of the children—her children, _Earth’s_ children—knowing full well that there may be a day in the near future where they would be lost to her forever. There was no time to mourn. No graves to visit. They weren’t even sure that Earth existed anymore.

 

Stevonnie towered over Pearl the older they got; they carried Rose’s sword with ease, and they developed their own personality. Sometimes the children would fuse for fun, but most often, Stevonnie required less food, could survive atmospheres with too little oxygen for Connie, and that made them the better candidate for survival.

 

Luckily, they found allies in the depths of space. Putarian Pleasurers were mammalian enough that they relied on oxygen and food for sustenance, took sympathy on them, and led the small band to safe areas, where Gemkind didn’t look, far from Yellow Diamond’s shrewd eyes. Putarians were harmless. Their handlers often weren’t, but Gems were widespread across the cosmos.

 

Pearl learned to pretend that Stevonnie was her mistress, much to their discomfort, and Stevonnie learned to carry theirself like a queen. Like Rose Quartz. They wore armor over their tattered jeans and eventually learned to shift clothing the way Gems did.

 

Rumors from Homeworld were common enough in the L5 sector, and Pearl managed to pay their way deeper into enemy lines by volunteering for EVA repair on a red grappler ship that she suspected belonged to outlaws.

 

Garnet’s prediction never left her, the promise that her partner would wait for her still fresh in her mind all these years later. Pearl wanted to go alone, and Stevonnie wouldn’t allow it. They insisted that any attempt to infiltrate Homeworld should be done together. Pearl didn’t like it, but she couldn’t argue. Neither could she leave them behind.

 

The easiest part had been getting in; Pearl was an old model, unregistered, and had played her part perfectly. Stevonnie refused any type of Gem scan, raised to her full height and demanded to know what era they were in, why should a veteran quartz be questioned like some common ruby, and the jet didn’t put up a fight. Stevonnie was tall and strong, muscular and beautiful, and everything a quartz should be. Pearl wondered if Rose would have been proud.

 

Everything had changed in the outer rings, but Pearl led Stevonnie to the underground, to areas untouched in millennia. There they found discarded pearls, and there they stayed, waiting for the right gossip to come their way. The discarded pearls didn’t mind; Stevonnie was interesting, and pretty, and their hair curled easily. The pearls had cloth that they were happy to trade for stories, and soon, Stevonnie had an imposing cape to help support the lie that they were a veteran. The pearls didn’t need capes.

 

Pearl offered stories and anecdotes that her distant sisters could scarcely imagine, and in return she learned what little the other pearls knew about the dungeons, about the Gems taken from Earth that Blue Diamond had sentenced to separation there. They had practiced mixed fusion, the pearls whispered, the most forbidden, dangerous kind, and Stevonnie didn’t speak for many hours.

 

For her part, though the news hurt, made Pearl’s heart ache, she was happy to hear it; Ruby and Sapphire yet lived, even if they were separated. That meant _Garnet_ yet lived, and that helped fill the hole in her chest just enough to renew her vigor.

 

Lion located Ruby’s cell easily. The catacombs were directly underneath, and Stevonnie was all too happy to free their friend while Pearl tried to find Sapphire’s, using a dated map that one of the pearls had exchanged for a taste of candy from another sector. Taste strips were all the rage; Pearl couldn’t imagine it.

 

Sapphire’s singing lured her easily enough, but her voice was tired and sad, and Pearl killed the topaz guard—shattered her Gem—to get to her friend’s cell. Sapphire had known she was coming, but she still cried into Pearl’s arms for several precious moments that they didn’t truly have before Stevonnie, Lion and Ruby could arrive at the scene.

 

They couldn’t fuse here, Pearl cautioned them, and Ruby and Sapphire were reluctant to obey. Still, the instant Lion could ‘port them to safety, back underground where the pearls lived in fear, Garnet was whole and alive again—her uniform was blotchy and dark, asymmetrical, and her hair was wild—and Pearl and Stevonnie crushed her in the tightest of hugs. The three wept while Lion stood guard, and Garnet kissed Stevonnie on the crown of their head, then drew Pearl up for a proper kiss that left the alabaster Gem seeing stars for a full minute.

 

“I knew you’d come,” Garnet said, and her voice was raspy. She hadn’t regenerated with her visor, and her three eyes shone triumphantly. “I never doubted it.”

 

“We have to get you out,” Pearl said, but her hands didn’t leave Garnet’s face, worn and tired from long years of separation. “There’s a grappling ship that owes me a favor. We can get as far as Gunsmoke. The Diamonds won’t think to look there.”

 

Garnet nodded, glancing past her long lost lover, to where Lion was too alert, too on edge. “We’d better get there fast,” she said quietly.

 

“Lion can get us offworld,” Pearl said, pulling Garnet and Stevonnie by one hand each. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t her whole family. But having Garnet back filled much of the emptiness that had consumed her for long years. “We’ll get to Blue Heaven and rest there. Then we can go anywhere we want.”


End file.
